By Ashley Howell PMHNP
In the past several years the term “doomscrolling” has become a popular. Doomscrolling is the act of endlessly scrolling through news sites, or social media and consuming the content that is often negative. We have access to information 24-7, and will often pick up our phones subconsciously, often spending hours a day staring at our tiny screens.
When your spend too much time reading or hearing about negative things, your sympathetic nervous system causes your body to release stress hormones. Consuming too many pessimistic topics can also cause physical symptoms such as fatigue, depression, anxiety, nightmares or other sleep disturbances, and stomach problems. The continuous feed of sad or devastating events can alter your perception of the world, as well as worsen the state of your mental health.
If you feel like your depression, anxiety, PTSD, difficulty sleeping or any of the other physical symptoms listed earlier are negatively affecting your life, visit our integrative psychiatry page to learn more and consider scheduling with one of our psychiatric providers for help.
Research by the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology reports that continuous shocking information can cause mood swings, increase in irritability and other PTSD symptoms. Even if the news events do not affect you, simply hearing or seeing the events can cause stress to your brain and body.
80% of people check their phone within 10 minutes of waking up. Often people will read or watch the news in the morning, exposing ourselves to negativity at the start of the day.
You can limit the amount of time on your phone by using the time limit functions available on most smart phones. Additionally, you could only watch one news program in the evening, or spend a short amount of time on your lunch break on your phone.
Ask your friends or family members not to discuss the news when out to dinner or spending time relaxing. Explain it can be overwhelming and you’d rather talk about something more pleasant. They’ll likely understand and agree with you.
Turning off notifications stops the news stories from appearing on your phone. This can limit your temptation to read negative events outside of designated times.
Remember that habits can be changed. If you find yourself continuously picking up your phone for doomscrolling, try choosing another activity that will positively affect your day. There are only so many things that you can control in your life, and the world events are not one of them. You can however, change how your absorb the information. It will take sometime, but you can make this helpful change.
Turning off notifications stops the news stories from appearing on your phone. This can limit your temptation to read negative events outside of designated times.
Remember that habits can be changed. If you find yourself continuously picking up your phone for doomscrolling, try choosing another activity that will positively affect your day. There are only so many things that you can control in your life, and the world events are not one of them. You can however, change how your absorb the information. It will take sometime, but you can make this helpful change.
Link for research-https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley
.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1997.tb02622.x
Link to 80% statistic
